The present invention has essentially for a subject matter an automatic sequential device for quantitative analysis of samples following one another at a high rate and in which a luminescence reaction is produced by means of an appropriate reactant.
It is already known to inject into a sample to be measured an appropriate reactant to bring about therein a luminescence reaction which can be measured by means of apparatuses sensitive to relatively low light-intensities, such as for example photomultipliers, it being understood that the choice of the apparatus depends on the intensity of the luminescence to be measured and that the signal registered by the said apparatus can be amplified and treated by appropriate means of electronic analysis.
It is also known that luminescence reactions, especially bioluminescence reactions, are used for quantity determination of very small concentrations of reaction compounds. Since the light emitted is, in particular, proportional to the concentration of the compound present in the sample and since, generally, bioluminescence reactions produce very low light intensities, it is essential that the apparatus portion where the reaction and the measurement of the photons emitted take place be placed in complete darkness, i.e., sheltered from any external stray light, and this even before the beginning of the reaction and until after the end of the measurement.
Moreover, luminescence reactions generally develop very rapidly after the mixing of the reaction compounds, so that not only the mixing must be effected rapidly in a completely dark medium, but the measurement must also be performed in a totally dark medium, as soon as the first photons are emitted.
Up to the present, however, there has been proposed no automatic sequential combined injecting-measuring device in which the successive samples to be subjected to quantitative analysis are placed in complete darkness so as to allow instantaneous and accurate measurement of the very low and short-lived light intensities of the bioluminescence reactions, which, as is readily understood, is difficult to achieve when the measurement is to be effected on samples following one another at a high rate.